Welcome to the beach. Your story sounds similar to mine. I lost a lot of weight on weight watchers a few years ago, but gained some of it back. I hadn't really thought about losing the weight until my dr. hassled me about my weight gain. He suggested that I cut carbs and sugar out of my diet...as he said, "try it for a month and see what happens." At that point, my DH told me that everyone where he works was following SBD and from what they said, it was a diet based on carbs.
After I researched the diet, I decided to combine SBD with my dr. instructions and stayed on Phase 1 form more than 2 weeks. The original plan was to stay on for a month, but I was due for surgery in 5 1/2 weeks after I started, so stayed on Phase 1 for that period of time. I lost 17 1/2 pounds in 5 1/2 weeks. Soooo, a long story to answer your question, it is possible to lose the 20 pounds in 2 months, but you may need to readjust the program to accomplish that.
Now the exercise....I wasn't exercising prior to starting SBD, but began to exercise with the start of the diet. Since I wasn't feeling well, I began by doing a cardio workout of 30 minutes about 2 to 3 times per week. It didn't seem to affect me, but I do know that some of the ladies with whom I work have experienced dizziness, etc. because their blood sugar dropped too low. I would suggest that you try it, if it doesn't work for you, adjust your eating plan to include a fruit, or something on the days that you workout.
Another possibility to avoid the carb crash in Phase 1 is to eat some beans, such as chickpeas in a hummus dip. They add fibre and some good carbs and are allowable on Phase 1. Best of luck!
Welcome to the Beach, Tilley! It is certainly possible to lose that much weight but since you don't have a whole lot to lose you might find it difficult. I imagine what you are really concerned about is losing inches so you fit better into your wedding dress. South Beach will definitely help with that especially since you are exercising.
South Beach is not a low carb diet although it is certainly lower carb in phase 1. You need to make sure you get lots of carbs from legumes during phase 1 which will help give you energy to continue exercising. Also make sure you drink your milk and eat your fat free plain yogurt. You might need to drop the intensity of your workout but you can probably continue it.
Many of the recipes in the official South Beach cookbook have Soy sauce in them. I used it in the Soy Ginger Asparagus (which works with green beans too) as well as things like the Chinese 5 Spice Chicken and there is a recipe using chinese 5 spice, soy, ginger and salmon. I believe it is fine during phase 1 but it has been a long time since I have done phase 1. You might need to watch the amount you use because the sodium can cause water retention. The Good Fats/Good Carbs book helps with a lot of less common foods but mine is at home right now.
Just to comment a little on Barb's input, there are several SBD recipes with soy, but Dr. A's recipes usually call for low-sodium soy.
Some good flavor boosters for the diet: garlic, tobasco, soy, artificial brown sugar, mustard, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, Mrs. Dash, chicken broth. I sauté a lot of onions to go with meat dishes. I sprinkle mozzarella or parmesan or low-fat cheddar on veggies sometimes to jazz them up.
WOW Tillie congrands on the loss thus far and the impending wedding
You and I must be twins seperated at birth~lol~ cept I am an inch taller and 4lbs heavier
You can do this
I work out every day, 30-45 mins on tread or stairmaster thing and then rotate my upper and lower body workouts so Im not working one part of my body every day cept abs. You may not feel like doing it, but do it~hugs~